[LINK] "How should Justin Trudeau respond to Donald Trump on trade and economy?"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC News' Daniel Cochrane shares a very compelling argument for Canada to immediately find out what Trump has in store for the bilateral relationship.

One of the key architects of Canada's trade relationship with the United States says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should seek a meeting with president-elect Donald Trump as soon as possible and take decisive action to protect Canada's competitiveness with its biggest trading partner.

"The No. 1 thing would be to reach out to Donald Trump, ask for a meeting, try to have a frank discussion of what his intentions are so that we could calibrate our own positions accordingly," said Derek Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to the U.S.

Burney says the Trump victory should force Trudeau to re-examine his climate change agenda and his plan to impose a national price on carbon starting in 2018.

"If Mr. Trump goes forward as he says on climate change, and we go in a different direction, we are going against the grain of our own competitive position in North America," Burney warns.

"We should be recalibrating those commitments, those intentions very carefully. Because if we put ourselves in an uncompetitive position with the United States in terms of manufacturing, energy, agriculture, you name it, who is going to win? Who is going to lose? Canada will be the loser I can tell you."